Cozzie guilty of murder

Friday

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS —Two days before the second anniversary of the brutal killing of 15-year-old vacationer Courtney Wilkes, Steven Cozzie has been convicted of her murder.

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS —Two days before the second anniversary of the brutal killing of 15-year-old vacationer Courtney Wilkes, Steven Cozzie has been convicted of her murder.

An eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated for almost two hours Friday afternoon before they found Cozzie, 23, guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, sexual battery, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping.

Wilkes’ battered, naked body was discovered June 16, 2011, in a dried-up cypress swamp off Cassine Gardens Nature Trail in Seagrove Beach. She had taken a walk with Cozzie earlier that day, and authorities determined he strangled her almost to death with a shirt, dragged her behind a tree, raped her and beat her with a piece of lumber he found nearby.

The murder shocked Wilkes’ small town of Lyons, Ga., where she was a popular high schooler, and the typically quiet Seagrove Beach, where Cozzie lived.

Wilkes’ family and a courtroom full of supporters were present when the verdict was read. Following instructions from Walton County Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells, they waited until the jury left before exchanging tearful hugs. Several stopped on the way out of court to embrace Sheriff Mike Adkinson, who also was emotional.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the Wilkes family,” Adkinson said. “I hate for them to have had to go through with this.”

Cozzie’s murder conviction carries only two possible penalties — life in prison without parole or death. The state will seek the death penalty.

The penalty phase of the trial, in which the same jury will be asked to recommend one of the two sentences for Wells to consider, will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

“It was obviously the verdict we were asking for,” prosecutor Bobby Elmore said.

He declined to comment further until after the penalty phase.

Defense Attorney Spiro Kypreos declined comment on the verdict.

Friday opened with closing arguments in the case. Elmore spent about an hour going over the evidence he had presented earlier in the trial and discussed each charge Cozzie faced. Convictions on any of the charges of sexual battery, kidnapping or aggravated child abuse give the prosecution “aggravators” it can use to argue that Cozzie be put to death.

“Justice requires you convict Steven Cozzie, according to the evidence and the law, of all the crimes he committed against that child,” Elmore said. “Justice requires it.”

Kypreos told the court during a break after Elmore’s closing argument that he and his client had decided to forego any effort to obtain an acquittal.

Kypreos instead argued that Cozzie had indeed killed Courtney Wilkes, but was guilty of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. He told jurors Elmore had not proven premeditation.

A second-degree murder conviction still could have carried a life sentence, but would have taken the death penalty off the table. Kypreos referred in his closing to an interview Cozzie had given to investigators in which he admitted killing Wilkes, but was forced to do so at gunpoint.

“Mr. Elmore said he (Cozzie) admitted he killed her and the prosecutor is correct, he admitted it,” Kypreos told the jury. “Does that mean he is guilty of first-degree murder?”

Kypreos tried to convince jurors that Michael Spencer, the young man who Cozzie showed Wilkes’ body to, had lied, exaggerated or perhaps even misspoke because of shock when providing information about what he had seen or what Cozzie had told him on the day of the murder.

Kypreos also tried to raise doubts that Wilkes’ murder had been as brutal as Elmore made it appear, and even questioned whether the blood-covered piece of lumber found at the scene — and described by Cozzie as what he had beaten the girl with — was indeed the murder weapon.

“At some point in time we have to get away from the theatrics and down to hard evidence,” Kypreos said.

On rebuttal, Elmore assured the jury, “You’ve heard all the evidence and arguments, if there’s reasonable doubt it will find you.

“Seek the truth.”

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